The American Horse Slaughter Prevention
Act, H.R. 503, was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives
(see: http://tinyurl.com/mudrj
) and will now move on to the Senate, where similar
measures have been defeated in the past. The animal
agriculture industries are alarmed by the success
of the bill, fearing such a ban could lead to a ban
on the slaughter of other species. BEEF Cow-Calf Weekly
comments: “The animal rights movement has done
a tremendous job of organizing their supporter (sic)
who are absolutely overwhelming the opponents to this
ban in contacting their elected officials.”

On Wednesday, 16 of 42 horses enroute
to an Illinois slaughterplant died after the truck
transporting them overturned. Seven died at the site
and nine were later euthanized. The local humane society
is caring for the survivors and seeking custody of
them. The driver, who was reportedly in violation
of USDA transportation regulations, was taken into
custody on outstanding warrants and released after
posting a $260 bond.

In the U.S. in 2004 -- the most recent
year for which numbers were available -- 65,976 horses
were slaughtered (about 88,000 horses, mules and other
equines). With the negative attention to the practice
here, horses are increasingly being sent to Canada
to be slaughtered. There, about 50,000 horses are
killed for human consumption abroad each year. An
additional 11,413 live horses were exported from Canada
last year to be slaughtered overseas. Horses can fetch
as little as 20 cents a pound at auction in Canada
but can cost as much as $15 a pound once they're slaughtered,
butchered and shipped to Europe and Asia. Most are
from Manitoba, where the PMU (Pregnant Mare Urine)
industry has been collapsing over the past three years.
Foals, the unwanted “byproducts” of the
industry, along with former racehorses, are among
the horses sold at auction who wind up at one of the
country’s three horse slaughterplants. (Explains
one racehorse trainer: “She couldn't run, was
ugly and stupid. So we killed her.”) The September
17th issue of Canada’s Winnipeg Free Press featured
a three-page article that examines the issue in detail,
replete with graphic color photos and a gruesome description
of transport and slaughter. The text is available
on-line as noted below.

Animal protection advocates and religious
leaders held a press conference on Tuesday to urge
Chicago’s City Council to uphold the ban on
foie gras (see: http://tinyurl.com/n6ho9
). Rather than having become an international laughingstock,
as some Council members claim, they assert that the
city has "gained status and respect in the world
community" by outlawing the sale or intentional
production of diseased duck liver. Rabbi Asher Lopatin,
who has appealed to the Council’s two Jewish
alderman to cease their attempt to repeal the ban,
pointed out that the Torah instructs us to be sensitive
to all forms of cruelty. Rev. Tad Pacholczyk, education
director for the National Catholic Bioethics Center,
stated that foie gras production is a procedure oriented
toward “a disturbing desire to satisfy the palate
to the point of promoting serious animal mistreatment."
Alderman Bernard Stone, who co-sponsored the proposed
repeal, said he is "not backing off." He
believes he can get the 26 votes needed to repeal
the ordinance. Ald. Joe Moore (49th), the primary
sponsor of the ban, said "The City Council won’t
be taken seriously if they do repeal this,”
contending that such action would countenance “a
product of animal torture and animal cruelty.”

In New Jersey, Assemblyman Michael Panter,
a vegetarian, plans to introduce legislation next
week to ban the distribution and sale of foie gras
in the state because the procedure used to produce
it (force feeding) is a "barbaric practice that
has no place in any civilized society." Panter’s
bill would also ban the distribution of foie gras
in or out of New Jersey, although he is uncertain
of the authority to ban distribution outside of the
state. New York-area chefs are anxious because a major
foie gras supplier, D’Artangnan, is based in
New Jersey. One said that such a ban would be “a
bomb in the New York restaurant scene.” Expressing
sympathy for affected New Jersey businesses, Panter
said: "At the end of the day, finance and economics
should not take precedent over protecting living things.”
Last month, N.J. Assemblywoman Joan Voss proposed
a bill that would "prohibit the force feeding
of ducks, geese and other poultry for the production
of foie gras" (see: http://tinyurl.com/fd3gx
). Presently, there are no farms in the state that
do produce it.

Sunday morning, a few hours before
the Yom Kippur fast, many Jewish people will perform
the Kapparot ritual, an ancient Jewish custom intended
to transfer divine punishment to the soul of a chicken.
It involves reciting a verse while waving a live chicken
around one’s head three times, with the chicken
subsequently being killed. Many Jews have adopted
substitutes for the chicken, such as smashing a piece
of pottery or giving money to charity. Some rabbis
and animal protection advocates are protesting the
ritual and the conditions in which the birds are transported
and marketed. Chedva Vanderbrook, a board member of
the Jerusalem Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals and social worker, reports: “The
chickens are brought to the slaughter in cramped cages
without water in the broiling sun. Half of them die
on the way.” She also claims that used birds
are sometimes “not given to poor people, but
are cruelly tossed to the side." Having seen
the ritual as a child, she warns that children who
witness it are either traumatized or become cruel
adults.

Prominent rabbis have also spoken out
against the custom. “Slaughtering chickens is
an unfit custom that goes against Jewish feelings
regarding animals,” states Rabbi Gilad Kariv,
from the Reform Movement. He explains: “Judaism
has always emphasized that the concepts of atonement,
soul searching and repentance are dependent on an
inner spiritual endeavor that man undertakes to correct
his ways. The concept of Kapparot shifts the emphasis
to external ritualistic expressions.” The chief
Rabbi of Tzfat, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, points out:
“…the Torah does teach us to be considerate
of them and forbids cruelty towards animals.”
He continues: “This is a very important commandment;
Judaism preceded the world by 3000 years in regard
to its concern for animals.” Activists with
Anonymous for Animal Rights demonstrated in Jerusalem
and in Tel Aviv, where vendors requested they leave
and threw water on them. The on-line article includes
photographs.

Said by prosecutor Charles Speer to
be “by far and away the biggest award (in the
nation) against a major confined animal producer,”
Premium Standard Farms (PSF) has been ordered by a
Jackson County, Missouri court to pay $4.5 million
to three families for offensive odors. The jury also
deemed the company liable for punitive damages. However,
PSF settled prior to the trial’s second phase
began and the plaintiffs dropped the punitive damage
case. This was considered a test case to determine
some standard for negotiating the 50 similar cases
Speer has pending. In addition, a class-action lawsuit
by a consortium of law firms seeks to represent all
property owners within 10 miles of the more than 20
pig farms the company owns in Missouri. PSF argues
that the odors were infrequent and minor, and that
they have spent millions to control them. One plaintiff
countered that the company’s actions in addressing
the smell of waste from 350,000 pigs on 1,300 acres
amounted to, “I see nothing, I smell nothing,
and we do nothing.”

NBC recently broadcast a news report
about Farm Sanctuary lawsuit against Corcpork, Inc.,
which challenging the intensive confinement of pigs
kept by one of California's largest pig breeding facilities
(see: http://tinyurl.com/fr87m
). The report included video footage of such a facility,
which can be viewed at: http://www.nbc4.tv/video/9910821/detail.html

Smithfield Foods Inc., which raises
and slaughters more pigs than any company in the U.S.,
has agreed to buy Premium Standard Farms Inc. (note
item #5), the second largest pig meat producer, for
$652 million. If the deal goes through, Smithfield
would own nearly 20% of the nation's pigs and control
31% of the nation's pig-slaughtering capacity. This
reflects the meat industry trend toward vertical integration,
with companies killing animals they own rather than
purchasing them from independent operators. The merger
will enable Smithfield to produce 54% of the pigs
it slaughters. "The pork industry is headed in
the same direction as the poultry industry,"
said C. Larry Pope, Smithfield's chief executive and
president. Economists expect the proposed merger will
be questioned by antitrust regulators. Sen. Charles
Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) have
asked the U.S. Department of Justice to examine it.
The Department could block the merger or require the
companies to sell some of their operations. If the
agreement is terminated “under specified circumstances”
Premium Standard will pay about $27.4 million and
Smithfield will pay $100 million.